Use Facebook to win over your local market

If you’re a local business owner, it makes sense that you want your company’s listings showing up at the top of consumer search results.

After all, it doesn’t help a restaurateur based in Boston to have a California native land on his or her website while looking for a bite to eat. And it certainly doesn’t benefit a local barber when a person halfway across the country is trying to get a haircut and winds up on your site.

So how can you make sure your website is the first to show up? Tailor your marketing strategies to meet Facebook’s local search requirements.

What ‘local search’ can do
According to Facebook’s website, “local search is the use of specialized internet search engines that allow users to submit geographically constrained searches against a structured database of local business listings.”

Optimizing your site for local searches includes a combination of information like:

Social networking sites are the third most common resource consumers use to find information about local businesses. And after Google Maps, Facebook was found to be the second most popular app for local searches.

Implementing Facebook’s local search requirements into your social media marketing strategies now – before it blows up and becomes commonplace – puts your company at a distinct advantage over your competitors.

Boosting your mobile search strategies with Facebook app
Many small business marketers are wondering right now how they’re going to advertise to their mobile customers, especially if they’re just getting the grasp of online and social strategies. Local search offers an effective solution.

The above referenced study found that within the past year, smartphone searches increased 26 percent, while tablet searches ballooned 19 percent. Those numbers stand to grow as shoppers continue to use their mobile devices more frequently to make purchases.

Local search is catered to meet the demands of mobile customers, regardless of whether they’re Apple or Android device owners. You want to put your company’s website in the best position to turn up in mobile consumers’ local searches.

Create a Facebook page that includes all of the essentials: your listings, your address, your hours and your services, just to name a few.

If you want to dominate local searches, social media can certainly play a role. Optimize your Facebook listings and you will have a far easier time succeeding.

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